Glimmery Moments
September brings us back into everyday life. Summer holidays end, the city fills up again and work and school begin. But summer hasn't completely left. Afternoons can still be warm enough to sit outside, even when the morning called for a sweater.
The change is easier to spot at the farmers market. The last berries sit beside apples, pears and the first pumpkins. Gardens turn from flowers to seedheads and berries, and on the way home, the evening light falls a little lower across the city.
Fall is beginning.
September brings us back into everyday life. Summer holidays end, the city fills up again and work and school begin. But summer hasn't completely left. Afternoons can still be warm enough to sit outside, even when the morning called for a sweater.
The change is easier to spot at the farmers market. The last berries sit beside apples, pears and the first pumpkins. Gardens turn from flowers to seedheads and berries, and on the way home, the evening light falls a little lower across the city.
Fall is beginning.
September is also a good time to hold on to some of that summer ease before the end of the year starts filling up.
Our free Calmer Holiday Season Guide helps you think ahead to what you want to cook, make, send and enjoy, with a little less to think about when December arrives.
Download the free Calmer Holiday Season Guide
September is also a good time to hold on to some of that summer ease before the end of the year starts filling up.
Our free Calmer Holiday Season Guide helps you think ahead to what you want to cook, make, send and enjoy, with a little less to think about when December arrives.
Download the free Calmer Holiday Season Guide
Go Looking for Red Leaves
In Japan, momijigari is the tradition of seeking out fall foliage. Look closer to home too. A maple in the park or Virginia creeper climbing a brick wall can turn an ordinary street bright red.
Look for Morning Dew
On cooler mornings, look for spiderwebs covered in tiny drops of dew. Something you might normally walk straight past suddenly becomes hard to miss.
Catch the Golden Hour
The sun sits lower in fall, casting a warmer light across buildings and streets. Even an ordinary bike ride home can look completely different. We captured these changing seasonal colors in our Halcyon Days collection. Coming soon.
Go Looking for Red Leaves
In Japan, momijigari is the tradition of seeking out fall foliage. Look closer to home too. A maple in the park or Virginia creeper climbing a brick wall can turn an ordinary street bright red.
Look for Morning Dew
On cooler mornings, look for spiderwebs covered in tiny drops of dew. Something you might normally walk straight past suddenly becomes hard to miss.
Catch the Golden Hour
The sun sits lower in fall, casting a warmer light across buildings and streets. Even an ordinary bike ride home can look completely different. We captured these changing seasonal colors in our Halcyon Days collection. Coming soon.
The kitchen garden still holds something of summer. Tomatoes and beans are ready to pick while pumpkins, squash and kale begin to appear. At the market, pears and apples replace the fruit we've been bringing home all summer.
Once they reach the kitchen, the season starts to feel closer. Soup on the stove after an afternoon walk. Apples and cinnamon in the oven.
In many Dutch kitchens, those apples become appelmoes. There may not even be a written recipe. Someone simply knows how much cinnamon to add or how long to let the apples cook.
Until one day, someone else wants to know.
The kitchen garden still holds something of summer. Tomatoes and beans are ready to pick while pumpkins, squash and kale begin to appear. At the market, pears and apples replace the fruit we've been bringing home all summer.
Once they reach the kitchen, the season starts to feel closer. Soup on the stove after an afternoon walk. Apples and cinnamon in the oven.
In many Dutch kitchens, those apples become appelmoes. There may not even be a written recipe. Someone simply knows how much cinnamon to add or how long to let the apples cook.
Until one day, someone else wants to know.
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
At Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, a new exhibition begins with something most of us recognize: how a familiar dish can bring a person or place straight back to mind.
Broodnodig: Van land, naar keuken en tafel follows food from the land where it grows to the kitchen where it is prepared and the table where it is shared.
Chefs share memories of bread with neighbors, a grandmother's soup and foods from childhood. It might leave you thinking about your own family's table.
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
October 10, 2026, through March 14, 2027
This is what we call contentment. And contentment is the feeling that surpasses happiness.
It often arrives with an inner smile. With finding joy in the smallest, most playful things. It is the feeling of not comparing. Of being present, light, and playful in these longer days.
The kind that arrives when you stop measuring your day against what it could have been, and simply notice what it is.
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
At Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, a new exhibition begins with something most of us recognize: how a familiar dish can bring a person or place straight back to mind.
Broodnodig: Van land, naar keuken en tafel follows food from the land where it grows to the kitchen where it is prepared and the table where it is shared.
Chefs share memories of bread with neighbors, a grandmother's soup and foods from childhood. It might leave you thinking about your own family's table.
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
October 10, 2026, through March 14, 2027
This is what we call contentment. And contentment is the feeling that surpasses happiness.
It often arrives with an inner smile. With finding joy in the smallest, most playful things. It is the feeling of not comparing. Of being present, light, and playful in these longer days.
The kind that arrives when you stop measuring your day against what it could have been, and simply notice what it is.
What Is Your Lievelingskost?
Most families have a dish that comes back year after year. Maybe it is the birthday cake someone always asks for, or the appelmoes that never tastes quite the same when somebody else makes it.
Often, the recipe lives in one person's memory. Our Family's Table gives it somewhere else to live.
What Is Your Lievelingskost?
Most families have a dish that comes back year after year. Maybe it is the birthday cake someone always asks for, or the appelmoes that never tastes quite the same when somebody else makes it.
Often, the recipe lives in one person's memory. Our Family's Table gives it somewhere else to live.
A Seasonal Recipe for your April Pause
Spiced Pear Oatmeal Crumble Cake
Fall brings pears back into the kitchen. Sweet, soft and at their best when the days begin to cool.
This cake pairs them with cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, finished with a buttery oatmeal crumble on top.
Serve it warm with coffee or tea, and a little whipped cream if you have a sweet tooth,
Spiced Pear Oatmeal Crumble Cake
Fall brings pears back into the kitchen. Sweet, soft and at their best when the days begin to cool.
This cake pairs them with cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, finished with a buttery oatmeal crumble on top.
Serve it warm with coffee or tea, and a little whipped cream if you have a sweet tooth,
What you need
For the cake
For the pear and oatmeal crumble
What you need
For the cake
For the pear and oatmeal crumble
How to prepare
Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a 20 × 20 cm baking pan with butter.
Whisk the eggs, lemon juice and salt until light and foamy. Gradually add the brown sugar and vanilla sugar.
Fold in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. Add the melted butter and mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, rub the cold butter into the oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon until small crumbs form.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the diced pears over the top, followed by the oatmeal crumble.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Serve warm with coffee or tea, and add a little whipped cream if you have a sweet tooth.
A recipe worth keeping? Write it down in Our Family's Table.
How to prepare
Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a 20 × 20 cm baking pan with butter.
Whisk the eggs, lemon juice and salt until light and foamy. Gradually add the brown sugar and vanilla sugar.
Fold in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. Add the melted butter and mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, rub the cold butter into the oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon until small crumbs form.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the diced pears over the top, followed by the oatmeal crumble.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Serve warm with coffee or tea, and add a little whipped cream if you have a sweet tooth.
A recipe worth keeping? Write it down in Our Family's Table.
The Calmer Year The winter editions remain available if you would like to revisit them.
You can open any month simply by clicking on it and begin there.
If you would like access to future editions, you can subscribe below.
The Calmer Year The winter editions remain available if you would like to revisit them.
You can open any month simply by clicking on it and begin there.
If you would like access to future editions, you can subscribe below.
